Rocky Yu: Inside AGI House, Talent Density & Why AI Is Built by Communities – E661
Youtube:https://youtu.be/26iWt5AumoU
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xOyQBUFZdfmd0sZuidXQv?si=e5631fe2140642a3"I finished college at 20. I grew up in a rural area of China with limited resources, but I developed strong curiosity early about how the rest of the world looked. Right after college, I spent two and a half years traveling the world with no money. I earned some income from university research work, bought a one-way ticket to Europe and the US, and lived by couch surfing, hitchhiking, and camping across unfamiliar places. I often did not know where I would sleep the next day or what I would eat, but things always worked out. The best and worst part was the same thing: dealing with uncertainty. As a founder and entrepreneur, you face uncertainty every day, every moment." - Rocky Yu, Founder and CEO of AGI House
"I did not need to live that way. I had family support in any situation, but I chose to do it out of curiosity. I wanted to understand the rest of the world, what young people like me were doing, and what they truly cared about. I do not believe that visiting a place for a few days is enough. I deliberately spent long periods living at their level to see and experience life as it was. I carried a 70-liter backpack with a tent and sleeping bag and traveled around the world." - Rocky Yu, Founder and CEO of AGI House
"We have seen many stories, and one word comes up often: resilience. You need to be extremely resourceful and resilient. People talk a lot about talent, but the world is not short of it. What differentiates people is who goes the extra mile to make things happen. When you realize, as Steve Jobs said, that the world is built by people no smarter than you, your perception changes. You realize you can be anyone and build anything." - Rocky Yu, Founder and CEO of AGI House
Rocky Yu, Founder and CEO of AGI House, joins Jeremy Au to unpack how early curiosity in computer graphics led him from engineering and startups to building one of the world’s most influential AI communities. They explore why talent density matters more than scale, how AGI House emerged during the pandemic as a mission-first experiment, and what it takes to turn deep technical conversations into real companies. The conversation covers Rocky’s journey from academia to entrepreneurship, how dinners and hackathons sparked breakout AI startups, and why AGI should be understood as a system of applied intelligence rather than a single god-like model. Rocky also shares his views on resilience, uncertainty, and how young people and parents should think about work, purpose, and opportunity in an AI-shaped future.